The Gateway

A fox hunting game on bycicle

The best ideas often come in the spring, especially if you are into public spaces, it’s on May evenings that is almost natural to stop and think about how to have fun in our neighborhoods.
That’s how The Getaway was born, during a tour in the Bicocca district, North of Milan, a perfect playground for nocturnal experiences when students from the college go home and the whole block becomes a dark and silent cathedral.

The first playtest was a lot of fun, no serious injuries, only a punctured tire and a pair of scented smoke bombs to color the evening.

The game mechanic was simple: one fox, or a bike with a tail attached to the child seat, enters the hunting area a few minutes haead and hides there.
The pack of dogs (the other players on bike) enter the area and begin the exploration, when the pursuers find the fox the chase begins. The fox has to survive 10 minutes in all, and will win the next round, or it will be the tracker that gets the fox tail to win.

In October 2014 we were invited to Poland to the Playpublik Festival and that was an opportunity to develop The Getaway.

Urban games festivals are fantastic experiences where you can try a lot of games and, if you are a game designer – where you can test your new game ideas and develop it to new heights.
We were even provided a budget for our game that we invested – almost all of it – on two professional fox hunting costumes. It was amazing!.

In Krakow the gameplay evolved into an even funnier (and more safe) game!

P.S. On the last night of the festival we were also rewarded by something even now we cannot explain: a real red fox with an incredible tail appeared in the deserted main square of Krakow, as if to say goodbye (or to make fun of us).

Credits

The Getaway.
A fox hunting game on bycicle.
A project by Urban Games Factory.